Repeal the Digital Economy Act and End Commercial Lobbying

 I can't think of a category  No Responses »
Jul 022010
 

It’s embarrassing. On the face of it copyright owners get extra protection and a simple route to having content removed from the Internet they claim is in use without their permission.

The suspect is assumed guilty until proven innocent. Its easy to report a copyright infringment and after just three the suspects website is removed or the offending WiFi switched off, there is no method to prove innocence.  The copyright owner is judge, jury and executioner.

So if you own a coffee shop WiFi or website your competitors or any malicious individual could potentially ruin your business.  And all this legislation is designed to protect the fat cats in the media industry who’ve been losing their milk to common sense.

This is an act written by the Lobby.  How much did they have to stuff in the coffers of our non-expenses driven leaders to get this through?

See for yourself on the new government Your Freedom website.



 Posted by Martyn at 11:32 am  Tagged with: , ,

Using twitter as an alerting platform

 Javascript, On The Front Line, PHP, Programming, Tech, twitter  No Responses »
Jun 302010
 

mypph 300x228 Using twitter as an alerting platformI received an email from Clickatell inviting me to top up my SMS account.  After a split second consideration I realised I did not need them anymore.  Sorry Clickatell!

Twitter is more convenient.  I have set up a few private accounts and subscribed to them through my own.  When an event occurs I receive notification direct to my phone as a free SMS message direct from twitter.

Although twitter has been unreliable lately it has proven more convenient than using Clickatell.  In time twitter will fix the problems and they may even be suitable for mission critical solutions.  I hope so because they are easy to use and should spawn many superb product ideas all designed to keep us informed with the information we want now, not just when we visit facebook.




 Posted by Martyn at 3:35 pm  Tagged with: , , , ,

Payment Processing for Onelogbook

 Javascript, On The Front Line, PHP, Tech  No Responses »
Jun 212010
 

homepage 150x150 Payment Processing for OnelogbookOnelogbook is an outdoor sports activity program currently in development. My task was to add Paypal payment processing to the joining form.

Technologies used were PHP, MySQL, Javascript and I created a few minor graphics. Payment information is sent to Paypal for processing. On successful payment Paypal return IPN (Instant Payment Notification) code to the website and the user is authorised to use the website extended features.

Javascript is used for form validation and PHP provides the server side code. If a payment is cancelled user details are removed from memory and the database is not updated (you can see the cancellation notice at the end of this short high speed video).

And a “Please Wait” graphic – scourge of Paypal Payment Processing!

pleasewait Payment Processing for Onelogbook

 Posted by Martyn at 4:02 pm  Tagged with: , , ,

New widget for Styleroomz

 Javascript, On The Front Line, PHP, Plugins, Tech  No Responses »
Jun 192010
 

Styleroomz asked for a widget to showcase products. Data is retrieved from their affiliate source as XML in a zip file.

The XML is updated daily to ensure prices and special offers are fresh.

The widget uses HTML, XML, MySQL, Javascript and PHP. Data sources include XML for the affiliate information such as coded links, pictures, pricing and store information, and MySQL used by the Styleroomz ecommerce software to link to their pages. The Yui library from Yahoo was used to create the carousel effect.

The following short video demonstrates how the widget in use.

 Posted by Martyn at 4:55 pm  Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

Redesigning Styleroomz Product Search

 Javascript, On The Front Line, PHP, Programming, Tech  No Responses »
Jun 192010
 

search results 300x230 Redesigning Styleroomz Product SearchI was given the opportunutiy to alter the search results layout for Styleroomz.com, a fashion website for dress sizes between 16 and 20.  The improved search design required alterations to PHP and Javascript.

 Posted by Martyn at 3:56 pm  Tagged with: , , ,

Lanzaventura Vacation Club

 Javascript, On The Front Line, Tech  No Responses »
Jun 192010
 

zoltan 300x256 Lanzaventura Vacation ClubThe site owner needed a new button added which required a small modification to the Javascript and the creation of two images.

 Posted by Martyn at 11:45 am  Tagged with: , ,

Terry Pratchett Quotes WordPress Plugin

 Entertainment, On The Front Line, PHP, Plugins, Tech, Wordpress Plugin  No Responses »
Jun 162010
 

Click here to download the Terry Pratchett Quotes WordPress Plugin/widget.

If you are a fan of Terry Pratchett then how can you resist a free Terry Pratchett Quotes plugin windget?  To install download the pratchett.zip unpack to your hard drive and then upload the pratchett folder to your WordPress plugins folder.  After activating the plugin go to your Widgets (in the Appearance menu) and drag it to your sidebar.

The widget adopts your template design automatically and displays quotes at random.


Moist Von Lipwig by ~rhianimated on deviantART

 Posted by Martyn at 11:26 pm  Tagged with: , , ,

Do you have any Questioons?

 Javascript, On The Front Line, PHP, Tech  No Responses »
Jun 162010
 

I just helped with some of the Javascript behind a twitter and Google Mashup called Questioon.

questioon Do you have any Questioons?

Currently available only on the .co.uk but Tunde, the owner, intends to update the .com soon.  Some of the features I added include:

  • A default set of 7 searches on the front page (called quick links)
  • Default searches replaces with the last 7 searches you made
  • Ability to delete an individual search
  • Ability to reset all quick links
  • Used Juitter to embed twitter feed on the results page

The design was created by another developer.

 Posted by Martyn at 5:49 pm  Tagged with: , , , , , ,

How to shorten links in PHP with Bit.ly

 CSS, Javascript, MySQL, On The Front Line, PHP, Programming, Tech  No Responses »
Jun 092010
 

Bit.ly API documentation http://code.google.com/p/bitly-api/wiki/ApiDocumentation.

Get your API Key http://bit.ly/account/your_api_key
(You will need to create an account if you do not already have one).

$url_to_shorten = urlencode("http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-QA2rkpBSY");
 
$bitly_key = "R_86df2938479233454a0a29";   # Replace this with your API key
$bitly_acc = "Your Acount Name";   # Replace this with your bit.ly username
$bitly_qry = "login=$bitly_acc&apiKey=$bitly_key";
$bitly_url = "http://api.bit.ly/v3/shorten?$bitly_qry&longurl=[url]&format=json";
$bitly_url = str_replace('[url]',$url_to_shorten,$bitly_url);
 
$short_json = file_get_contents($bitly_url);
$short_array = json_decode($short_json);
 
echo "Short link is: ".$short_array->data->url;

The use of json_decode limits this to PHP 5.2.0 or better. If you are using anything less check with your host, you may find it can be enabled directly through your control panel.

 Posted by Martyn at 1:41 pm  Tagged with: , , , ,
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